Monday, December 5, 2016

Is Europe run jointly by its technocrats and CEOs?

In the previous post I said that to get an idea of the world we are living in, it is helpful to look at the world economy and its composing parts, i.e. countries and companies. But, in terms of policy making, the distinction between countries and companies is a bit artificial. Is, for instance, Europe not run jointly by technocrats and its major multinationals such as
Nestlé, Royal Dutch Shell, Total, Repsol, Philips, BP, Vodafone, BASF, AkzoNobel, Heineken, Siemens, Deutsche
Telekom, Bayer, ThyssenKrupp, and Maersk?

All multinationals mentioned, except Maersk, are currently member of the powerful business lobby group European Round Table of Industrialists (ERT). Observers say that ERT was the major force behind the creation of the euro and the attempt to get TTIP adopted.

On its website the ERT says it is "a forum bringing
together around 50 Chief Executives and Chairmen of major multinational
companies of European parentage covering a wide range of industrial and
technological sectors. Companies of ERT Members are widely situated
across Europe, with combined revenues exceeding € 2,135 billion,
sustaining around 6.8 million jobs in the region. They invest more than €
55 billion annually in R&D, largely in Europe."

According to the Dutch version of Wikipedia, the ERT can be considered as one of the main architects of the great treaties of the European Union [1] since 1985, and policy decisions such as the EU enlargement, the introduction of the euro, pan-European connections such as Eurotunnel and the Oresund Bridge between Denmark and Sweden, [2] the Lisbon Strategy [3] or the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership TTIP. [4]

The English version of Wikipedia says that "The political agenda of the EC [EU] has to a large extent been dominated by
the ERT......While the approximately 5000 lobbyists working in Brussels
might occasionally succeed in changing details in directives, the ERT has in many cases been setting the agenda for and deciding the content of EC [EU] proposals."[3] quoting Keith Richardson's study Big Business and the European Agenda (2000), The Sussex European Institute, p.30.

Other European companies setting the policies of governments include big bankers. Insiders once told me that Angela Merkel followed the advice of Josef Ackermann when he was still the CEO of Deutsche Bank. An article in the NYT confirms Ackermann's influence on Merkel, Deutsche Bank's Chief Casts a Long Shadow in Europe.

About Me

As a kid I liked numbers and the sound of strings. I considered studying engineering but chose social sciences because of my interest in people. I combine a theoretical interest with a practical, social approach which brought me to the sphere of policy research. I am interested in reducing the disparity between poor and rich, between the powerful and the less powerful.
In 1973 and 1982 I lived in Latin America. In the mid-1980s, I was able to create an international forum to discuss the functioning of the international monetary system and the debt crisis, the Forum on Debt and Development (FONDAD). I established it with the view that the debt crisis of the 1980s was a symptom of a malfunctioning, flawed global monetary and financial system.
I was one of the driving forces behind the creation of the European Network on Debt and Development that was established at the end of the 1980s to help put pressure on European policymakers.
In 1990, before the beginning of the Gulf War, I cofounded the Golfgroep, a discussion group about international politics comprising journalists, scientists, politicians and activists that meets regularly.
The website of FONDAD is www.fondad.org